Post second wave of Covid-19, the box office got back on track sooner than expected. ‘Sooryavanshi’ (2021), the first big film to release in cinemas after the pandemic, collected nearly Rs. 200 crore. Later, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (2021) and ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ (2021) also did well. In 2022, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ collected Rs. 100 crore while ‘The Kashmir Files’ and ‘RRR’ crossed the Rs. 200 crore mark. And now, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ has been released today, April 14 and it’s all set to create history.
‘KGF: Chapter 2’, as the name suggests, is the sequel to ‘KGF: Chapter 1′ (2018), a Kannada film that was released extensively in the Hindi version. It clashed with Shah Rukh Khan-starred ‘Zero’ (2018) back then and arrived in cinemas with minimal hype and publicity. Yet, it managed to cross the Rs. 40 crore mark at the box office. Later, it became a huge hit on television. It earned a cult following due to the scale, setting, plot and performance and swag of the lead actor, Yash.
Yet, the trade and industry got surprised by the advance sales. The advance booking commenced on April 7 and in no time, shows began to get sold out. The demand is such that many theatre owners had to commence shows at 7:00 am, 6:00 am and even 5:00 am. In a city like Surat, Gujarat, for the first time, shows will start from 6:00 am. In Mumbai, a multiplex will start playing the film from 12:10 am followed by shows at 3:20 am and 5:45 am. And believe it or not, the latter is already full while the other two shows are fast filling.
At this rate, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ is all set to take one of the biggest openings ever. The day 1 collections are sure to be Rs. 40 crore plus. There’s also an outside chance that the collections will be in the range of Rs. 45-50 crore. The biggest Bollywood opener is Hrithik Roshan-starrer ‘War’ (2019), which collected a huge Rs. 50.61 crore. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019) collected more Rs. 53.30 crore. ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ has the chance to go near or maybe cross these figures.
Interestingly, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ has the advantage of a four-day weekend. Today is a holiday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti, Mahavir Jayanti and Baisakhi. Meanwhile, Good Friday falls on April 15. If word of mouth is positive, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’s first weekend collections can be historic. The collections might drop from Friday if public reports are mixed or negative. Even then, it’ll be at an advantage as the craze is tremendous.
